Returning to a Review; Not a Spoiler Warning: After reading my review of The Dragon Slayer’s Handbook, author Merrie Haskell blogged about why she chose to write a heroine with a clubfoot, and why Tilda does not get magically healed at the end of the book.

The World SF Travel Fund: This project was started in 2011 with the goal of helping one or two international persons to get to a major SF/F event. As of this morning, they’ve met their $3000 goal, which funds the project for the next two years. But there’s 10 days left, and wouldn’t it be awesome to see it hit at least $4500 and provide them with a bonus year? The rewards are great, too. Donate $10, and you’ll get the e-books of the Apex Book of World SF, volumes 1 and 2.

Con or Bust Auction Begins Saturday, February 9: “Con or Bust helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions.” You can read more about the founding and history of the project on their About us page. Items up for auction includes books, critiques, Green Tea Yoda Oreo cookies, and much more.

Weregeek, a web comic, talked about the Hawkeye Initiative yesterday and suggested that someone should do something similar for fantasy RPG art. Hm…

What do you think of John Scalzi’s new tattoo? Okay, so maybe I Photoshopped it. For background and better picture of Gamma Rabbit, see John’s post here. I’m impressed and amazed at how effectively he’s taken a rather irksome annoyance and transformed it into a fundraiser which has drawn international attention and brought in more than $50,000 in pledges for causes such as RAINN, NAACP, Emily’s List, and Human Rights Campaign. Think we can convince him to get the tattoo for real if the pledges hit $100K?

This received a lot of attention the past 24 hrs, but more never hurts. M.C.A. Hogarth was told by Games Workshop that she couldn't use "Space Marine" as a title of one of her books because GW was claiming that term as trademarked by them. She writes about it here: http://mcahogarth.org/?p=10593, with a follow-up late yesterday here: http://mcahogarth.org/?p=10638